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CHAPTER 6

SOCIAL FRAGMENTATION

Who can afford to help in this age of crisis? —Pakistan 1993

In 10 years, there will be the selection of the fittest, and the leastprincipled in the arena will win. —A middle-aged man, Georgia 1997

What is mine is mine,and what is your is yours; people in this communityare very stingy. —Ecuador 1996a.

The fallout from inequity within institutions, the state, civil society, and the household isincreasing social fragmentation, resulting in a decline in social cohesion and an increasein social exclusion. Poor people report, that by and large, they have not benefited fromnew opportunities created by economic and political restructuring. Both in rural andurban areas, poor women and men report weakened bonds of kinship and community aswell as direct experience with increased corruption, crime and lawlessness.29 While thiswas often more pronounced in urban areas, it was experienced even in rural areas. InGhana, for example, groups of rural women noted the disappearance of social solidarityas a result of labor migration out of the village over a ten-year period:

[In the past], men organized themselves in groups through communal labor toassist each other to build and roof houses. Women supported each other to dofarm work such as sowing, weeding, and harvesting. A woman who had recentlygiven birth to a baby was always supported by young girls who cared for theirbabies and by older women who brought firewood and even treated the babieswhen they fell sick. Individual families tried to support each other. Womenwould work in groups in search of food to feed their children. They went to thebush in groups to cut firewood and to burn charcoal to sell. Respect and authoritywas given to the chief and his elders. (Ghana 1995a)

Similarly, in Yemen, the poor spoke about decreasing trust and the inability of families tocooperate with another. “Local merchants and businessmen are accused of being lesssupportive and betraying traditional solidarity. This makes it difficult to create localcommittees or to raise money for operation and maintenance of community projects”(Yemen 1998).

In all societies, people live in social groups stratified by ethnicity, caste, race, tribe, class,or clan. When state institutions cannot provide a secure and predictable environment,unmitigated power asymmetries can become highly polarized. In response, social groupsmay rally to provide security for their members. However, a strengthening of ties withinindividual social groups (bonding) can aggravate existing cleavages and furthermarginalize those who are already excluded from these groups (exclusion). If intra-group

29 See Figure 10, chart on homicide rates at the end of the chapter.

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bonding is accompanied by a breakdown of social cohesion among groups, institutionsbecome the agents of partisan interests, rather than the agents of equitable social redress.

In such cases, trust in both state and civil society institutions, whose role it is to mediateindividual and group claims, spirals downward. A lack of trust in society’s institutionstends to reinforce people’s desire to seek security within groups, rather than withinsociety, which in turn exacerbates a cycle of insecurity, social exclusion, and increasedlevels of conflict and violence. Social fragmentation can permeate society, erupting, forexample, as domestic violence in the household, rising crime and violence in thecommunity, and massive corruption and civil conflict at the state level. Severe conflict ofthis type has afflicted over 50 countries since 1980, displacing an estimated 30 millionpeople as a direct result (World Bank 1998).

This chapter first describes the phenomenon of social cohesion, then discusses thereasons for its decline, and introduces a case study of poor people’s experiences with thepolice. The second part of this chapter describes the phenomenon of social exclusion endswith a case study of widows.

Social CohesionYou see those few potatoes in the bag? I have just borrowed them fromsomeone, trusting that I will repay with the work of my hands. —A mother,Kenya 1998

Social cohesion is the connectedness among individuals and social groups that facilitatescollaboration and equitable resource distribution at the household, community, and statelevel. Social cohesion is essential for societal stability and for easing the material andpsychological strains of poverty. It also affirms individual and group identities, and“includes” rather than “excludes” less powerful groups. Among poor households, socialconnections are used to build social solidarity, to receive and give emotional support, toobtain help in daily tasks, to access small loans and job leads, and to collaborate toaccomplish otherwise impossible tasks, such as house building, or gathering the harvest.A PPA from India, for example, reports that one community had “a considerable degreeof social cohesion, which became especially evident in circumstances that were out of theordinary, such as sudden illness and disease, natural disasters, and accidents. At thesetimes, villagers would pool their resources and energies to provide both financial andmoral support to those in need” (India 1997a).

At the community level, cohesion is an asset that provides security, regulates behavior,and improves the standard of living of the community as a whole in matters that includebut are not limited to material wealth. The Panama study gives an example of strongcohesiveness sustained by systems of sanctions. In one community, this includedimposing fines of five Balboas on men who failed to contribute to community workprojects “so that the union that comes from work is not lost” (Panama 1998).

At the state level, cohesive societies are likely to be more efficient and more capital-rich,and hence more productive than fragmented societies. Dani Rodrik (1997) found that the

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key to national economic growth during periods of external shocks was the presence ofstate institutions that mediated social conflict. Social cohesion is normally accompaniedby political stability, which usually signals the existence of property and citizen rights,and which encourages private investment from both local and foreign investors.

Robert Putnam (1993) demonstrated that a lack of “social capital” is not merely “a loss ofcommunity in some warm and cuddly sense.” Rather, social cohesion and civicengagement are “practical preconditions for better schools, safer streets, faster economicgrowth, more effective government, and healthier lives. Without adequate supplies ofsocial capital, social institutions falter and lose efficacy.” Social cohesion also plays animportant role in the way people deal with the psychological aspects of poverty.Giovanni Sartori (1997:58-69) states that human beings “endlessly seek identity in somekind of belonging.” Social cohesion counters the psychological isolation created bypoverty in two ways. First, it affirms the humanity of poor people even in the mostdegrading physical and economic circumstances. Second, it increases their access toresources via those same social connections.

The decline in cohesion within the community affects not only friends and neighbors, buteven kin networks and traditional hospitality. In the Ukraine, for example, althoughfamily members, relatives, and close friends have become more important than ever as aresource, the rising cost of transportation, telephone, and even postage stamps, combinedwith shrinking incomes, has diminished the ability to maintain contact, care for elderlyparents, and assist children. Since Ukrainian independence, new national borders havesplit many families (Ukraine 1996). In Armenia it was reported that despite the strengthand importance of kinship reciprocity, people are less able to help relatives and the flowof cash and goods is increasingly confined to parents, children, and siblings (Armenia1995).

In Apunag, Ecuador, some households reported that in order to save scarce resources forfood, they did not participate in celebrations at all. In Maca Chico, community ritualshave been shortened considerably; while in Melan, fiesta expenditures have beenconverted from a community responsibility to an individual household option. Villagersnoted that this tends to reduce community solidarity (Ecuador 1996a).

An older poor man in Kagadi, Uganda, said:

Poverty has always been with us in our communities. It was there in the past,long before Europeans came, and it affected many—perhaps all of us. But it wasa different type of poverty. People were not helpless. They acted together andnever allowed it to “squeeze” any member of the community. They shared a lotof things together: hunting, grazing animals, harvesting, etc. There was enoughfor basic survival. But now things have changed. Each person is on their own. Afew people who have acquired material wealth are very scared of sliding back intopoverty. They do not want to look like us. So they acquire more land, marrymore wives, and take all the young men to work for them on their farms andfactories distilling gin. So we are left to fight this poverty ourselves. And yet we

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only understand a little of it. It is only its effects that we can see. The causes wecannot grasp. (Uganda 1998)

Why is Social Cohesion Declining?Youth are most affected; they see no real chance for participation in thedevelopment of the country. In spite of their education and energy, theyare helpless, frustrated, and dangerous. —Kenya 1997

Around the world social fragmentation was associated with major economic disruptions;anger over the fact that new opportunities were limited to the rich, the powerful, or thecriminal; migration in search of employment; an overall environment of lawlessnesscombined with failure of systems of police and justice; and increased crime and violence.

Economic DifficultiesThis is not the desert of sand, but the desert of unemployment. —Unemployed man, Pakistan 1993

If a person keeps one chicken which lays an egg every day, then he willhave 800 drams a month— the salary of a teacher. If he has two chickensand gets two eggs a day, this gives him the salary of a professor. —Avillage official in Goris, Armenia 1995

The world over, decline in social cohesion was linked to lack of economic opportunities,and in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, to dramatic shifts away from occupations thatonce provided a living wage. While some of the elite have been able to take advantage ofnew trading and business openings, the poor have been excluded from theseopportunities. The perceived unfairness of unequal access to opportunities results infrustration and disorder which further attenuates economic difficulties.

In Armenia, the dramatic drop in the value of salaries has forced professionals and theintellectual elite to abandon their jobs because they are no longer able to live on theirsalaries. During the summer of 1993, the typical salary of a senior researcher in socialsciences was the ruble equivalent of $25, then a normal salary. By November, theaverage salary had dwindled to $7. By December, a month after the introduction ofArmenian currency, it had shrunk to $2.50, although it was soon raised to $5.

In Moldova, “Poverty has created rifts in communities between former friends andneighbors. People are cynical, suspicious, and jealous of other’s success, which they mostoften attribute to dishonest and corrupt behavior. In their own communities, the poor feelashamed and constantly humiliated in their encounter with former neighbors and friendswho have prospered. This humiliation is poignant in the case of children and youngpeople, who sometimes prefer to remain at home rather than risk their classmatesmockery at their old clothes. Although poor people extensively rely on each other at thesame time, frequent mutual suspicions and animosity as well as fear of those in authority

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often prevent people from cooperating on a community scale to help each other moreeffectively and improve community conditions” (Moldova 1997).

And in Latvia it is reported that the lack of financial resources has forced people toreduce their socializing outside the family circle, so that the family has become their onlyshelter, and sometimes the only group that can be trusted (Latvia 1998). Unfortunately,economic hardship touches the household as well, and people reported that the unendingproblems of poverty created stress, arguments, and even violence within families. Awoman in Latvia said that endless arguments have made her sons “aggressive, ready tofight and defend themselves” (Latvia 1997).

In Ukraine, collapse of employment by the public sector has resulted in the poor trying tolearn the new ways of trading. The word that has emerged is “Ratitsa,” which literallymeans to “spin oneself.” “Spinning or hustling to make money refers to the incessantmotions of buying and selling, buying and selling, and evokes the tremendous effortneeded to work more than one job, and plan ahead in case all attempts at earnings fail.”The poor, those most actively seeking employment, said that the reason for poverty wasthat “they didn’t know how to work” in the new Post-Soviet market oriented world(Ukraine 1996).

For the poor in developing countries, unemployment seems to have become a fact of life.In Pakistan, the poor said that new opportunities were beyond their reach. In Jamaica,focus groups linked violence largely to economic need. In Kenya and South Africa, thepoor not only spoke extensively about lack of wage opportunities but explicitly linked itto increasing violence. In Ethiopia, the poor said that because of unemployment, theunemployed “are exposed to Durayenet, behaviors and acts which are morallyunacceptable and disapproved by the family and community at large” (Ethiopia 1998).

MigrationWe “widows” are left alone because the men leave in order to work.—A poor woman, Ecuador 1996a

The cohesion of households, communities, and states begins to erode when men andwomen are forced to migrate to find employment. Family members left behind for longstretches have less time and fewer resources to contribute to and sustain communityrelations. In Ecuador, communities feel that “communal organization has seriouslyslipped recently, partly reflecting that many male members have migrated to the urbancenters on the Coast” (Ecuador 1996a). Likewise, in India, “The institutional frameworkof caste panchayats across the district was found to be under constant erosion. The majorfactors that were attributed to this by caste elders were migration in search ofemployment, which highly reduced the opportunities of community gatherings, andchange in attitude of the younger generation towards caste norms” (India 1998d).

In addition, migration can reduce social cohesion in the host community. In Ethiopia, forexample, prostitution increased as women in the urban areas lost their jobs as maids andwere joined by the arrival of more female migrants from rural areas seeking work, all of

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whom found no other options (Ethiopia 1998). In Ukraine, migrants reported difficultiesin tapping into existing networks in host cities. One man had trouble because, “not beingfrom Kharkiv poses serious disadvantages because he lacks networks of relatives orchildhood friends to tap into to locate employment opportunities” (Ukraine 1996).

The South Africa study concluded that the forced removal of blacks during the apartheidera and high levels of migration, mobility, and pervasive violence contributed to theundermining of social cohesion. “The result is that many communities are extremelydivided, with little commonality in terms of needs and aspirations” to the degree that “thenotion of community is extremely tenuous in South Africa” (South Africa 1998). Thesame report notes that support by community networks was infrequently mentioned byrespondents, and then only in connection with assistance in exchange for labor. Thetraditional strategy of ubuntu, or sharing whatever one has, had been severely eroded bymaterial and social pressures. Many of those interviewed expressed regret that thiscustom was no longer followed and noted that the loss of ubuntu places an extra burdenon poor families (South Africa 1998).

In Niger (1996), migration of a whole family was viewed as a sign of great distress.“Both the rich and the poor people migrate: the rich leave with money to start a business;the poor migrate to look for food and work, often returning to the village during theperiod of cultivation. Poor migrants seek employment in unskilled jobs such as makingsmall crafts or selling tea or water. Sometimes they go back to their village with a fewgifts — watches or radios — that they sell to be able to leave again. Some come backonly with an illness, AIDS, or venereal disease.”

LawlessnessWhen disputes arise between neighbors, there are few legal channels bywhich to resolve them. —Moldova 1997

Theft from the workplace is not a new phenomenon, but the degree towhich it is practiced is. —Ukraine 1996.

Poor people frequently report a general feeling that lawlessness, or “normlessness” hasincreased, accompanied by significant upheavals in norms of acceptable behavior. It isboth a cause and an effect of declining social cohesion. When community networks arestretched too thin and there is insufficient state support, community cohesion begins tounravel as norms of reciprocity quickly become norms of opportunism. Communitieswithout cohesion are often characterized by mistrust between neighbors and fearaccompanied by high levels of interpersonal crime and violence. Lawlessnessdegenerates into crime, in the absence of functioning police, courts, and legal systems.

In Kenya, “during difficult times, the poor resorted to stealing from shops or farms inorder to survive” (Kenya 1996). In Moldova, people reported that in the past it was rarefor people to steal from their neighbors’ homes or fields; nowadays, however, “even thefamily horse is taken” (Moldova 1997). People report feeling powerless to stop theft.One man reported that he did not have a watchdog because he could not feed it. As a

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result, his 300-liter oak wine barrel worth 300 lei was stolen. Because he could notidentify the culprit, the police closed the case without making any effort to pursue it.

An overall sense of lawlessness prevails in Moldova. Many people feared going out inthe evening because the streets are filled with “aggressive and intoxicated youth.” Brutalattacks on both men and women are common because help is difficult to come by. In onecommunity, a “widow was gang-raped by seven men while her 10-year-old daughterlooked on. Three men returned and tried to rape her again, but she managed to escapeout of a window. She has since moved in with her sister and is afraid to return to her ownhome” (Moldova 1997).

When social solidarity breaks down, collective action is difficult and social norms andsanctions no longer regulate behavior. In Panama, researchers found that in communitieswith low social capital, it was difficult to enforce the most basic norms, even when thebenefits to the community seemed clear. For example, in one community the local juntalent money to residents to install electricity in their homes and no one repaid the loans.In another community, if there are problems between neighbors, the arbiter is supposed tobe the Represante of the Regidor, “but we do not trust [him]”(Panama 1998).

Disciplining a neighbor’s child was not a good idea in this community: “One tries to callattention [to children who engage in acts of vandalism] and is confronted with profanity.”The lack of trust hinders the organization of activities: “Respect is lost, if someone wantsto do something [for community development] . . . always someone steals the money.”In that same community, focus-group participants explained that children are at the edgeof violence: “They do not say hello, do not respect [you], they want to beat you up”(Panama 1998). In one indigenous island community, the Sahila worried that norms werenot being transmitted to the next generation: “Parents do not offer guidance . . . youngmen do not go to the fields [to work]; they want to [fish] all day long” (Panama 1998).

In Armenia, researchers found that “self-help groups and indigenous communitystructures of power outside government have not yet emerged, especially in rural areas.Sometimes people cooperate on a single task — for example, a small group of refugeestraveled from Vaik to present their complaints in Yerevan to the government committeeon refugees. Such groups dissolve as soon as their immediate task is completed. Mostpeople rely on their own families or cooperate at best with related households to ensuretheir immediate survival” (Armenia 1995). Similarly in Ecuador, researchers found inseveral communities that local organizational capacity was inadequate to supportcommunity members (Ecuador 1996a).

Crime and ViolenceThe Mafia is huge, literally in every government body. If children used toplay at being Cossack raiders, they now play at being mafiosi with shorthaircuts, imitating bandits. —Ukraine 1996

At the extreme, general lawlessness escalates to crime and violence, which becomes avicious cycle, fed by the absence of functioning systems of communal or formal justice,

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courts and police. In the rural areas, theft of one family’s belongings by another familywas virtually unheard of in the former Soviet Union. Today, in the Ukraine, ruralrespondents reported that their storage bins had been raided and livestock stolen. Oneperson reported that a relative’s seedlings were stolen right out of the ground hours afterthey had been planted! “This rise in rampant village crime represents a sharp break incommunity cohesion and fractures rural solidarity"”(Ukraine 1996).

In Thailand, poor people reported feeling unsafe and insecure. They expressed greatconcern about their children’s future. Some children have been forced by their parents todrop out of school not to work, but to guard the home from break-ins. In thisenvironment of declining trust and increasing competition, along with decreased freetime, people noted the weakening of community groups. Groups reported increasedconflict within the household, within the community, and in the nation at large linked tothe absence of police (Thailand 1998).

In Jamaica, gang violence prevents the installation or maintenance of infrastructure,which in turn exacerbates crime and war and erodes community level cohesion.Telephones were widely perceived as a mechanism to reduce violence. But in MakaWalk, “Telephone Company [workers] had been stoned by local youths as they beganlaying lines, so the installation was never complete. An important indicator of‘community cohesion’ in Park Town was the fact, as participants frequently pointed out,that their one telephone box had never been vandalized” (Jamaica 1997). Violence ofthis kind frequently seems counterproductive even to the interests of the perpetrators.

Psychoanalysts point out that “in the face of powerlessness, violent and destructivebehavior such as trashing shops and cars during riots is experienced as transformative. Itisn’t that people are simply destroying the facilities in their communities. They arepsychologically transferring the bad feeling lodged within them to the perceived malignenvironment, despoiling it as they feel they have been despoiled themselves. They areenacting in their behavior an expression of their inner world which is a refraction of theirsocial experience” (Orbach 1999:4).

Participants in Ethiopia PPA made a timeline discussing the rises and falls in crime andviolence during the 1990s. The group in Teklehaimanot saw crime increase first during1990-91, when there was a government transition, and during 1994-95, when a rise inunemployment was accompanied by “loose police control.” The most recent years, 1996-97, have seen a dramatic decline in crime. This was seen as the result of an increase inthe numbers of police on the force, especially on the local level (Ethiopia 1998). Thus,while the community of Teklehaimanot drew a strong correlation between rises in crimeand a weakening of the State and its institutions, they also observed that when crime wasat its lowest, an effective state was complemented by local participation.

In sum, worldwide massive economic, political, and social changes have isolatedindividuals and fragmented communities. For the poor, the situation is especially acutebecause they have less flexibility to adapt to dislocation. Those whose “life insurance” isfundamentally social in nature experience increased insecurity and vulnerability. Some

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poor people have managed to seize opportunities offered by rapid economic change, andothers with good luck and hard work have flourished in these same difficultcircumstances. In the Ukraine, for example, the key to moving out of poverty wassummarized as, “Connections, individual initiative, and talent” (Ukraine 1996). Butoverall, those who are poor today clearly see themselves as losers rather than winners asvast changes sweep through their countries. Their feelings of loss and vulnerability areperhaps best exemplified in the way poor people experience a quintessential institution ofthe state, the police.

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Case Study 8: The Poor and the Police

The gradual relaxation of state control has reduced some of the functionsof the police. But at the same time, it has also had the effect of reducingstate control over the police. For this reason, many people are deeplyfearful of the police. Because the state is weak, citizens — especially thepoor and powerless — feel unprotected against the police. They have norecourse but compliance when police demand bribes or threaten brutality.—Ukraine 1996

The presence of dysfunctional police forces plays a substantial role in the deterioration ofsocial cohesion and trust within a society, and the rise in lawlessness, crime and violence.Corruption, institutional failure, and social fragmentation are all brought into sharp reliefby attitudes towards the police. The police are said to be among the three most repressiveinstitutions in society (the other two being the military and the household) (Gelles andStraus 1988). When the institutional checks and balances on police action disintegrate,the police force is capable of immense repression and exploitation.

The precise consequences of this repression, of course, differ from context to context,depending primarily on the extent of pre-existing police involvement in society. Thecountries of the former Soviet bloc, for example, were characterized by an exceptionallypervasive and surveillance-oriented police system. A report from the Ukraine explains:

In discussing perceptions of the police and their relation to crime and [law]enforcement, it should be noted that the Soviet police force was charged withserving the state by monitoring and controlling citizens and preserving order,rather than controlling crime. Soviet citizens obtained their registration(propiska) through the police. It was the role of militia to ascertain that citizenswere employed and living where they were registered, and to register marriagesand divorces in the internal passports people still use as legal identification.Citizens also applied to the police for foreign passports and visas. (Ukraine 1996)

Around the world, police suffuse society for a range of reasons, such as to wage a “waron drugs,” or to address terrorism and “anti-democratic forces,” and so on. Heightenedpolice presence in communities has noticeable effects. In Jamaica, for example, thedevelopment of a special crime-fighting unit has created tremendous social tension:

Police are a central part of the everyday life of the urban poor, yet are perceivedas reinforcing existing structures based on fear and divisiveness. The actions ofthe Anti-Crime Squad, (ACID) and “Rat Patrol” (mixed army and police patrol)were singled out as being brutal and intimidating, particularly by young peoplewho perceive themselves to be subjects of wholesale harassment. (Jamaica 1997)

In South Africa, the police have historically been associated with repressive minorityrule, and there are residually poor state/police relations. In much of South Asia, the police

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are associated with corrupt politicians, evoking fear rather than respect among poorpeople.

Police ActivitiesThe police support their families by just showing their shadow —Residentof Akhuria, Armenia 1995

As the above quote indicates, in environments where the police are not accountable, themere presence of the police can caste such a pall of fear that people are willing to makepayments just as precautionary measures to be left alone. The power of the police todominate, threaten, evoke fear, and demand bribes was pervasive in environments whereno one is policing the police. The police are mentioned in about 40 percent of the reportsreviewed. In none of the documents is the report favorable. At best, the police arereported as "largely inactive" in their policing roles; at worst, they actively harass,oppress, and brutalize. In countries as different as Jamaica, Uganda, India, and Moldova,police brutality was mentioned as a serious problem facing the poor.

Examples of police indifference are particularly prevalent in Eastern Europe. They areconsidered “indifferent” because their actions do little to meet peoples’ expectations, asin the following example from the Ukraine:

In 1993, an elderly lady received a large sum of money from relatives living in theU.S. She was robbed on the way to the bank, and immediately filed a report withthe police. The police showed her an album with photographs of knowncriminals. She tentatively identified her attacker, but the police then asked, “If wego to him now, how will we prove that it was he who stole your purse?” Rosawas amazed, since as she pointed out, it would have been very easy for her toidentify her purse, which also contained her photograph. A second time, shetelephoned the police to report that her Arab neighbor had been badly beaten byarmed men demanding money. The police claimed they didn't have enoughgasoline to come, although as Rosa pointed out, their station was located only 200meters from the crime. (Ukraine 1996)

This indifference seems particularly prevalent in cases of violence against women. Rapevictims in South Africa report, “Even the policemen are not doing anything about this. Ifwe go to report to them, they always say go find other people who were raped by thatperson and come back with all the names of the victims, only then they will know if thatperson is really a rapist. They will ask you, what did you do to get raped? Did youprovoke the rapist? What kinds of clothes were you wearing? They ask you all sorts ofquestions without giving any help” (South Africa 1998).

Along with the problem of indifference by police, corruption proves to be another majorobstacle to ensuring adequate protection and justice. In Madagascar, the police andjudges, who are supposed to be the guardians of justice, were seen as the most corrupted(Madagascar 1994). The impact of police corruption varies in significance from one

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context to the next yet can become pervasive in a particular society because it is self-perpetuating.

Many reports also note that the police are largely responsible for making informal sectorsurvival strategies increasingly difficult, by harassing vendors and small traders,especially women. Women end up constantly on the move to avoid the police, whopatrol unauthorized areas in order to collect bribes from traders and kiosk owners. Suchbribes are mentioned in PPAs throughout the world. In Cameroon, for example, “tradersin food crops mentioned that even where the road is ‘good,’ because of the numerousroad blocks, police harassment and customs check points ‘travel is a real nightmare’”(Cameroon 1995).

In Georgia, bribes factored into both formal and informal business activities. Smallbusinessmen are faced with bribes demanded by all officials, including the police, andextortion from organized crime. Entrepreneurs said that the only way to survive was tohave a krysha, a protector, to have good relations with powerful figures in the policeforce, and to publicize this fact to all to protect oneself against “sudden accidents”(Georgia 1997). While police actions can range from indifference and neglect topursuing corrupt activities, the severest form of injustice affecting the poor usually takesthe form of violent police harassment of individuals. This can mean being beaten byMoscow police as suspicious “persons of Caucasian nationality” or in some extremecases being “returned in a coffin” (Georgia 1997).

In all countries, minority or “socially excluded” groups were particularly vulnerable topolice extortion and harassment. In Pakistan, researchers found the most extreme case ofinsecurity among the Bengali community of Rehmanabad, in Karachi. “They had beensubject to evictions and bulldozing, and on returning to the settlement and constructingtemporary housing of reeds and sacks, have faced on-going harassment by landspeculators, the police and political movements” (Pakistan 1993). Similarly inBangladesh, tribal groups had stopped filing cases with the police because they knew thatthere would be no action, only further harassment (Bangladesh 1996). In Georgia,Internally Displaced Persons, in addition to suffering the humiliation of being labeled“beggars,” reported that even when they had land, their poultry was stolen more oftenthat of natives, and that the police refused to take an interest (Georgia 1997).

Coping StrategiesAs the formal state deteriorates, local agents of the state are increasingly able to exercisepower arbitrarily and with impunity. Those poor people who are able to solicit thepatronage of the police fare substantially better than those who are unable to enlist thiskind of support (India 1998d). Two kinds of coping mechanism are identified in thereports, which correspond to two roles of the police force: maintaining justice andprotecting the public.

Coping with the Absence of Justice. Police forces, per se, are relatively new phenomenain many countries, and most had a variety of social mechanisms for preserving order thatpredated official police activities. In India, for example, village quarrels and conflicts are

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often resolved by the mukhia (village head) joined by four other village members to forman informal committee called a Panch. The decision of this body is widely respected bythe aggrieved parties, and such events are almost never reported to the police or taken tothe courts (India 1997a).

This form of informal justice follows traditional lines. In some cases, popular courts areestablished. While these tend to be more democratic than their predecessors, there is noguarantee that they will also be free of repression or injustice. A Jamaican report notesthat informal justice systems within poor communities have developed as a response tothe lack of law and order. These alternative systems, mainly hierarchical in structure inthe form of councils, committees, or even ad hoc groups are headed by dons or otherpowerful leaders to hand out justice informally. In one instance a cocaine addict wasbeaten up and driven out of an area, in another a widely accused child beater was “triedby the people” and forced to leave the community (Jamaica 1997).

Neither of these mechanisms for dispensing justice is ideal. In times of institutionalcrisis, certain groups can become “judge, jury, and executioner” — an exceptionallydangerous state of affairs, particularly for those without power.

Coping with the Absence of Security. As observed in times of institutional crisis, thosewith greater power or resources are able to claim the attention of the police moresuccessfully than those without. If the police are unwilling or unable to provide theprotection sought by those in power, other agencies have shown themselves more thanwilling to step in. In the Ukraine, for example, businessmen frequently feel compelled tohave bodyguards because the police are not willing or able to protect private citizens orprivate property. As a result, mutual dependency is forged. Moreover, many peopleconsider that the local “Mafia” (including ethnic and local gangs, organized crime, andcorrupt government institutions) have penetrated law enforcement agencies, and thatcriminals generally operate with the knowledge and protection of the police (Ukraine1996). The bond between the police and business interests also contributes to thefrequent reports of the police harassing those involved in informal sector business.

Those without resources to pay for added security sometimes agree to combine theirefforts in an attempt to secure greater protection. In some villages in Tanzania wherecattle theft is high and police presence low, people have banded together to createSungusungu or security groups within their communities. All the men and women in thevillage above age 20 are required to join. The young men are responsible for security,and at night patrol the village to make sure that people are not loitering around. Womentake turns to prepare food for the guards (Tanzania 1997).

Similarly, in rural Georgia, because of frequent theft of livestock and harvest, farmerstake turns watching the fields before the harvest. They have found themselvesconfronting armed thieves (Georgia 1997).

When protection from the police is up for sale, the poor in urban slums are often trappedbetween two evils, a corrupt and preying police on the one hand, and slumlords and

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gangs on the other. In Bangladesh, slum dwellers noted the lack of assistance from lawenforcement agencies. In the slums of both Chittagong and in Dhaka, men reported that“musclemen” regularly harass teenage girls and even kidnap and rape them. Musclemendemand money from the slum dwellers, and threaten that they will burn down theirhouses if any complaints are lodged against them (Bangladesh 1996).

Consequences for the PoorThe police cannot patrol; they are corrupted. —Panama 1998

It is important to stress that the corruption of the police has consequences well beyondreduced confidence in them by the poor or other members of society. Many reports,across all regions, mention that reduced trust between groups and individuals occurs as aconsequence of an impaired police force, and the consequent increase in crime. Theabsence of trust in the police prejudices future cooperation both within communities andamong groups. When the actions of an ineffective police force reduces peoples’ trust init, this lack of trust contributes in turn to a further deterioration in the police force’sreputation and effectiveness. Without trust in fellow community-members, there is littlehope of positive change. In Jamaica, for example, the PPA noted that existing socialinstitutions in the communities studied have largely failed to reduce violence, leaving aninstitutional vacuum in many cases. Consequently, to date, the major mechanism tocontrol or reduce the “war” is located almost entirely in the visible presence of differentbranches of the police force, with widespread accusations of brutality, as well as humanrights violations (Jamaica 1997).

In Moldova, increased crime, from pilfering fields to rape and assault, make poor peoplefearful of venturing out of their homes in villages, towns, and the cities. People feel theyare vulnerable to threats, intimidation and all sorts of abuse from those in power. Lack oftrust within communities, lack of trust between citizens and their officials, collusionbetween local officials and police and perceptions of a two-tier system of justice, distrustof the banking systems – all these put “severe constraints on citizens’ initiative and grass-roots activity” (Moldova 1997).

PolicyThere are no quick fixes. The problems associated with the police are embedded in theproblems of state dysfunctionality. Given the impact of crime, lawlessness, corruptionand police harassment on poor people’s lives, poverty reduction strategies can no longerignore the role of police and lawlessness in impoverishing poor men and women. Womenare particularly vulnerable and, as has been suggested in Yemen, consideration should begiven to the creation of women’s police stations which have similar power, resources,and status as male police stations.

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Social ExclusionYou’re not one of us. — Georgia 1997

As people become progressively more isolated, they also cut themselvesoff from information and assistance that could help them overcomeproblems and reenter society. —Latvia 1998

Social exclusion emphasizes “the role of relational features in deprivation” (Sen 1997:16). It refers to the norms and processes that prevent certain groups from equal andeffective participation in the social, economic, cultural, and political life of societies,(Narayan, 1999). It is both an outcome and a process that renders similar outcomes morelikely. Social exclusion thus involves at least four factors: the excluded, the institutionsfrom which they are excluded, the agents whose actions result in the exclusion, and theprocess through which exclusion occurs. Social exclusion is a relational phenomenon,implicating those with power and affecting those without. To complicate the dynamic,power asymmetries are observed even within excluded groups.

The PPAs demonstrate the close connection between social exclusion and poverty. Mostof the excluded groups — including women, children, old people, widows, and AIDSsufferers — are cut off from the networks that provide access to power and resources.This makes them vulnerable and increases their risk of being poor. Being poor is in itselfa cause for social exclusion due to the social stigma poverty carries. While it is possibleto break the cycle of exclusion, social exclusion can pass from generation to generation.A researcher in Mexico asked children how a person could stop being poor. Theyresponded, “Getting an inheritance,” “Receiving money from relatives who live in theUnited States,” and “Having faith and praying every night.” When asked why there arerich and poor, they answered, “Destiny,” “That’s the way God created earth,” and “Therich are of the devil and the poor of God.” These answers refer to factors beyond theircontrol, beyond personal effort, studying, and working, which are not felt to measurablyimprove their social or economic class (Mexico 1995).

While exclusion can lead to economic poverty, and while social exclusion and povertyare deeply interconnected, they are not coextensive: “people can be poor without beingsocially excluded or excluded without being poor” (Narayan 1999:4). Yet discriminationand isolation — the hallmarks of social exclusion — have a profound negative impact onone’s quality of life. There are two aspects of this relationship. First, being poor leads tosocial exclusion, which increases social stigmatization and marginalization frominstitutions, leading to greater poverty. Second, while social exclusion may not lead toeconomic poverty, it is always linked to exclusion from institutions of society and alwaysleads to a poorer sense of well-being.

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How are People Excluded?In rural districts, especially when parents are intimidated by the city, orare not Georgian speaking, they hesitate to seek medical treatment. Theydon’t know where to take their children, and are afraid they cannot affordtreatment. —Georgia, 1997

Each caste group maintains strict norms about interdining and alsoaccepting water from other communities . . . any violation would lead toconflict within the village. —India 1997d

Bradley’s framework describes five main mechanisms of exclusion of increasingseverity: Geography, Entry Barriers, Corruption, Intimidation, and Physical Violence.They are now becoming widely recognized as a development problem (Bradley 1994)and were observed operating in the lives of many of those who participated in the PPAs.

Geography

We are all poor here, because we have no school and no health center. Ifa woman has a difficult delivery, a traditional cloth is tied between twosticks and we carry her for 7 km to the health center. You know how longit takes to walk like that? There is nobody who can help here, that’s whywe are all poor here. —Togo 1996

Social exclusion can be a function of geography, and there are often direct correlationsbetween rural isolation and poverty (Ravallion 1995). Many PPAs report that poorpeople in rural villages cannot easily make trips to access healthcare or educationalfacilities in towns. A mayor in El Quiche said, “The problem or the most urgent need inrelation to community health is the lack of money to buy medicine and also bringing sickpersons from the farthest villages to the municipality for treatment” (Guatemala 1997b).Poor people in outlying areas not only must find a means to traverse the distance toschools, hospitals, and other institutions, they also lose income by undertaking a longtrip.

The poor often live in the most marginal areas, which compounds the cycles of povertyand exclusion. In Bangladesh, the poor live on eroding river banks, the first affected byfloods. In rural areas, the poor are often relegated to infertile land.

Urban areas also can generate excluded populations. As the Jamaica PPA reports, “Agroup of youths argued that through area stigmatization everyone in their community wasbranded either a criminal, or an accomplice to one, so that they are disrespected byoutsiders and the police alike and cannot secure a job or learn a trade. They perceivedthis leading to hunger, frustration, and idleness, which encourages gang war and gunviolence, with death or imprisonment as the ultimate price. When contract work wasavailable to the local male work force, crime and violence declined, increasing againonce the contract ended” (Jamaica 1997).

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Barriers to Entry

Kinh people have been applying and writing papers for a year now, andstill haven't gotten anywhere. The land tenure situation in Vietnam isprecarious without official recognition. —Vietnam 1996

Privatizing land consists of wandering among district and national officesfor weeks and months at a time. —Farm worker Moldova 1997

Transaction costs and documentation requirements are the two most common barriers toentry. Transaction costs are any costs entailed in acquiring a good or service above andbeyond its actual value. For example:

After receiving a heart operation, hernia surgery, and removal of gallstones in thecourse of two weeks, Valentina remained in hospital for four more weeks. Duringthat time, most of her elderly parent’s money was spent on her treatment andmedication. Each of the nurses had to be paid 10 lei when she was in theemergency ward, otherwise they wouldn’t have bothered to bring her meals . . .and 10 lei so they would be careful when they gave her injections. At the end ofthe treatment, the doctors demanded that Valentina’s mother organize a dinner forthem. She acquiesced, selling some household items to purchase the food, sinceshe feared that Valentina might have to enter hospital again and would depend onthe doctors’ good will, if not their skill, which the mother felt was inadequate.(Moldova 1997)

Transaction costs can exclude the poor from accessing the resources and benefits that aresupposed to be directly targeted at them: “Not every disabled person can afford theprocedures to qualify for disability payments; the medical examination alone is 170 lei,and families outside Chisinau must also reckon in transportation costs for the disabledperson as well as the accompanying person” (Moldova 1997).

Barriers to entry involving state bureaucracy commonly revolve around documentationrequirements. The state is often inflexible in helping the excluded gain access toresources. The following example from Cameroon noted that “women’s access tonational institutions in the Far North is greatly handicapped by the fact that they do notpossess national identity cards. Without them, women cannot vote, nor can they initiate ajudicial process, nor travel farther than the family enclosure. Because womentraditionally have little say on critical issues of inter-household resource allocation anddecision making, and owing to the fact that they are illiterate in the language ofgovernment administrators, women have little chance of voicing their opinions”(Cameroon 1995).

Documentation as a means of excluding the poor is commonly cited in the reports as areason for their inability to access resources:

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One issue indirectly caused by government but open to governmental solution isthat of documentation. Many of the poor interviewed, especially in the cities,expressed frustration over the difficulties of getting access to programs, services,or even employment for lack of needed documentation. A mother in Mexico Cityspoke of being denied access to a milk-feeding program for her child because shedid not have a birth certificate for the child. Men in the same city talked of beingrefused employment due to the lack of identity (such as voting) cards. Only 15percent of the sample of the Mexico City area had legal papers attesting to landownership. . . . If they didn't follow their leader and give him the support hesought, he could arrange it that they be evicted from their place of residence.(Mexico 1995)

Document requirements represent only part of the barrier. Other barriers to entry includethe hostility and unfairness that excluded people face when dealing with bureaucracy.Documentation, in this sense, becomes the device through which certain groups aresocially excluded, a device that allows the state to humiliate and deny services to certaingroups:

While access to the judicial system was perceived to be extremely important,officials are generally said to be extremely rude and unhelpful. Transportavailability and costs were also said to be major factor inhibiting such access. “Itis difficult to get to the court. It costs R10 to return by taxi from the farm toPatensie, and then R3.50 from Patensie to Hankey.” Further, systemic problemsalso inhibit access to the judicial system. In the case of maintenance grants, poorwomen are expected to obtain maintenance from absent fathers if they can locatethem. This system places an unreasonable burden on these women, who facehostile and obstructive officials, widespread administrative incompetence,lackadaisical sheriffs who fail to find absent fathers even when given correctaddresses. (South Africa 1998)

CorruptionIf I had not given them money and presents, I would not have receivednormal care. I understood that when no one came to care for me the firstthree days of my stay in the hospital, and my neighbor in the ward hintedthat I needed to pay for someone to pay any attention to me. —A patientat a hospital in Yerevan, Armenia 1996

In total she received aid from the Executive Committee, the equivalent ofone loaf of bread. Real assistance is reserved for friends and family ofthose Executive Committee workers charged with dispensing aid.—Ukraine 1996

The chiefs and headmen no longer care about the needs of their peopleand have been separated from them in terms of the Administration Act,No.38 of 1927. . . . These acts encourage bribery, as manifested in themoney, brandy and stock that chiefs demand from people for giving them

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residential sites. This means that of the land allocated to people, [much]is bought and those who cannot afford this resort to squatting. —SouthAfrica 1998

One way for the excluded to gain access to institutions is to pay bribes. This is frequentlydone in Central Asia and Eastern Europe where poor people emphasized the importanceof connections in getting anything: social security, pensions, jobs, health care, admissionto universities, trading licenses. One woman in Donetsk, Ukraine said, “Jobs that pay areonly given to relatives or friends” (Ukraine 1996). Connections are often the only meansthe excluded have for gaining access to entitlements such as health care or judicialprocess.

Corruption among local officials was noted to be a common problem in all parts of theworld. In Madagascar, for example, “The President of the Firaisana takes advantage ofhis position by commercializing common waters. In a region where water is a rareresource, he said, it is a scandal to see truck drivers channeling water to people for whomit is not destined. There, the president of the Firaisana is the government. People knowabout these problems, but they do not say anything. [The respondent] said that this is notan isolated case, but happens in many other regions” (Madagascar 1996).

In Uganda, paying bribes for health services seems to be taken for granted. A poor manreported, “In Jinja hospital, you first pay Shs 500/ for the book to have your namerecorded, then you pay another Shs 500/ for the doctor’s consultation. In case you arereferred to a Chinese doctor, you pay another Shs 1000/. In this case you also have topay ‘foot allowance’ to the person who takes you to the Chinese doctor. This one isnegotiable. Should you be admitted, then you begin paying Shs 500/ per day. And if youmake a mistake of mentioning that you are from Masese, you will simply not be treated atall — we are so poor” (Uganda 1998).

Corruption ripples throughout society as increased fearfulness, which is often prompted,and perpetuated, by increased levels of crime. The Moldova PPA describes a man whohad been hospitalized for seven months following a brutal beating on the street. “Despitethe fact that the police had helped him, he decided not to pursue the case when hisattackers threatened his life. They even gave him 80 lei with the demand that he bribe thejudge to dismiss the case. [He] complied” (Moldova 1997).

Corruption is significant not only because it makes access harder for the poor in financialterms, but also because it erodes the trust that a society needs to function effectively.Corruption makes equal access and fair treatment from the state impossible for the poorand the excluded and accelerates their disengagement from wider society. Corruption is acentral reason why societies grow more insecure. Increasing insecurity leads todeepening social cleavages, increasing social exclusion, and societal fragmentation.

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IntimidationMy husband and I are no longer as close as we used to be when I wasworking — I think it is because he knows that I am solely dependent onhim, especially because the children are still young. I am scared of him . . . but I know that I have to do my best and listen to what he tells me todo, for the sake of the children. —South Africa 1998

Psychological violence is not an uncommon means of isolating individuals and groups.Fifty percent of the PPAs contained some reference to the threat of violence. In general,the credible threat of harm is used by those with power to maintain their dominance overthose without power.

Intimidation is observed at every level of society. As a mechanism of social exclusion, itis often used to reinforce social stereotypes and power relations. For example, a PPAfrom India reports still deeply entrenched exclusion of low castes by high castes. “Mr.Pichhalu Barik’s little granddaughter touched a tube well in the village Khairmal. Thevillagers refused to take water from that tube well. They called a meeting of thevillagers, and gave Barik’s family threat of punishment. He had to apologize to thevillagers for the act of his granddaughter” (India 1998a).

In another instance, intimidation is used by local officials to undermine new mechanismsof accountability: “Participants made both collectors and local government officialsaccountable for setting prices arbitrarily, forbidding producers to sell their produce toother agents, determining the timing of when the produce can be sold, and threateningthem with a boycott. Sometimes the farmers said that [in retaliation] the collectorsprevent rehabilitation of roads and bridges to prevent farmers from getting their crops tothe market. They forcibly obstruct the farmers’ journeys to places of meetings forfarmers’ associations” (Madagascar 1994).

Powerful institutions, even when they are obviously helping the poor, can easily slideinto use of intimidation to meet their goals and “standards.” In Bangladesh, the GrameenBank is well known for its work with poor women. Lowest-level bank officials, mostlymen, work with women’s groups and enforce weekly repayment of microloans.However, sometimes the zeal and rewards for collection can degenerate into intimidationbecause the collectors know that the “beneficiaries” have few options. A field workernotes, “Khodeja lives in Hogolbaria. She has been a responsible member of GrameenBank for awhile and pays her installments on time. Unfortunately, her husband andbrother-in-law died in a road accident, so she missed paying her next installment. TheGrameen Bank staff forced the other group members and Khojeda’s family to repay themoney. ‘They were so cruel,’ women said, ‘If they behave like that again we shall beatthem up’” (Bangladesh 1996).

Finally, in South Africa, the threat of violence was reported to be the major form ofcontrol by men over women. In discussion around obtaining child maintenance, womenrepeatedly stressed that they were reluctant to insist on pressing for support, even when

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this was a legitimate claim to be backed up by court action, as this would put them at risk.“It is dangerous to go looking for him, you might get hurt” (South Africa, 1998).

Physical ViolenceThose juveniles are in another world and don't believe in anything. Theydon't care if you are really tall [and] built, or tiny, if they like what youare carrying they will take it from you, and if it involves breaking in yourhome, they'll do it. —Venezuela 1998

We don’t fear death because we see it everyday. —Youth in Greenland,Jamaica 1997

Social exclusion can result in direct physical violence. The world over, fear ofrepercussions casts a silence around the subject of violence, violence perpetuated by thestate and violence against women in the household and in the community. Nonetheless,researchers were still able to record many instances of violence and violence againstwomen. The Jamaican PPA, which investigated the issue of violence specifically, notedthat community groups identified over 25 distinct kinds of violence includinginterpersonal, gang, economic, and political. All discussion group participants, regardlessof age, income, gender, or community agreed that violence started when politiciansintroduced guns into the areas. People reported a shift from political violence tointerpersonal and gang based violence. Violence further fragments society as noted in theJamaican PPA: “Costs of violence can range from weak investor confidence, damage tothe image-dependent tourism industry, higher health and police costs, the disaffection andmigration of the urban middle class, higher mortality/morbidity rates, reduced access tosocial services, dysfunctional families, deeper oppression of women, to the breakdown ofcommunity spirit and participation, and the substitution of a climate of fear” (Jamaica1997).

In South Africa, people said that the high rates of violence in the urban areas result inlower migration of children to urban areas. Research teams visiting one area were toldabout a raid the previous night in which three people had been killed. “On the day thediscussions were to take place, the youth were preoccupied with ensuring the safety ofthe community during the coming night. . . . After the discussion, a group of youthsescorted the researcher out of the township for her own safety” (South Africa 1998).

In Thailand, discussion groups identified increased levels of conflict in the household, inthe community and with outsiders. In discussion groups in Bangkok, it was reported thatmany poor people were being attacked by “loan sharks” because of their inability to payback loans. This had increased feelings of fear and insecurity in the community. On anindividual level, the most recurrent theme on the subject of violence was that of domesticabuse of women and children. Domestic violence is rooted in norms of gender inequityand identity and is often linked to alcohol and drug abuse. A woman in Kenya reported,“Both my parents used to drink, and therefore neglected the children. They could not doanything worthwhile to assist us. I got married in 1982 and divorced in 1987. Wedivorced because my husband was an alcoholic. He started selling property . . . to get

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money for alcohol. We had no shamba. When I stopped him from selling things, he beatme. He chased me, and I came to Korogocho” (Kenya 1996). In Bangladesh, when theissue of violence was raised in group discussion, “the women began “speaking in hushedtones and sometimes . . . withdrew from the discussion altogether” (Bangladesh 1996).

Who are the Excluded?The PPAs included in this analysis often refer to the exclusion of particular groups.While the way in which each of these groups is excluded is context specific, the PPAsreveal that certain social differences continue to arise as grounds for exclusion, such asbelonging to a particular ethnic, gender, caste, religion, or age group; living in aparticular geographic area; or having certain physical disabilities. While we presentdiscrete categories of excluded groups, it is difficult to make generalizations about whichgroups are the most likely to be excluded in which society and what they are excludedfrom, Various forms of social difference overlap and intersect in complex ways overtime. Some of the most frequent categories of excluded groups are described below.

WomenEverybody is allowed to voice their opinion. In many cases, I'm cut offwhile I am voicing my opinion. —A poor woman, South Africa 1998

The woman who has lost a husband, the woman who is old and can nolonger till the soil, the woman who does not have children, the womanwho is neglected by her children . . . are the most vulnerable. —Lubombo, Swaziland 1997

In the overwhelming majority of reports studied, there were important examples ofexclusion of women suggesting that they experience exclusion most pervasively. Whilethe exact nature of exclusion was shaped by the culture of each society, the followingsimilarities emerged from the reports.

Women’s identity within the household is traditionally centered on their roles as motherand wife. Women speak of their “obligation to feed the family and care for the children,both materially and emotionally, regardless of the contribution of their husband”(Bangladesh 1996). The primary expected role of family caretaker has made it harder forwomen to participate in public life. In many societies, women are disconnected fromownership of assets and contact with public institutions. In a discussion among women inUganda, some said they “wished to have been born a man” (Uganda 1998). As one PPAexplains, “Women’s traditionally subordinate position constrains their access to factors ofproduction: they cannot own land, the plots they receive are generally those left over bymen. . . . they are seldom contacted by extension agents, and they have only residualaccess to tools and means of transport owned by the household” (Ghana 1995b).

In many cases, the role of wife and mother is reported to be so inflexible that women whofall outside this category are ostracized by individuals and discriminated against by stateinstitutions. In three communities in Nigeria, for example, “spinsters, unmarried

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mothers, and barren women are often harassed and insulted by younger men and womenwho . . . consider them personally responsible for their fate. Hence they . . . carry alifelong stigma and loss of respect. Economically, these categories of women areperceived as being unable to compete on an equal footing with other women as they havea weaker production base. For example, it was pointed out that these women are suspectwhen it comes to borrowing money for business ventures or self-improvement. They alsosuffer threats” (Nigeria 1995).

The increasing role of women in low paid formal and informal job markets has broughtnew opportunities as well as new burdens to women. New sources of income for womendo not lead to a neat shift in their authority within their households or in the communities.Yet despite these inequities and social constraints, some women as seen in earlierchapters, are resisting, walking out of abusive homes and asserting their rights in overtand covert ways.

ChildrenChildren ask for uniforms, shoes, pens. We people who labor for others —should we earn to feed ourselves or buy chalkboards? —Poor woman,Pakistan 1993

Why should I study, I know how to add and count, I can count money, rippeople off, and cheat on weighing . Nobody is paying me to study, but Imake 15-20 lari a month from trade. — A 10-year-old businessman,Georgia 1997

They reproach me for beating my children. But what should I do whenthey cry when they are hungry? I beat them to make them stop crying.—A poor mother, Armenia 1999

Children are among the most vulnerable groups in society. They have little power orinfluence over the social processes that govern their lives and little ability to protectthemselves from abuse. In Togo, the PPA notes that "customary law considers children asproperty of their family and gives them no individual rights. The widespread acceptanceof highly exploitative labor practices and the occurrence of genital mutilation on girls areamong the most extreme examples of the vulnerability of children” (Togo, 1996).Lacking basic rights, the problems facing poor children that emerge most strongly in thereports are exclusion from education, health care, child labor, abuse, and homelessness.Children are excluded from school for both economic and social reasons. As one reportfrom Nigeria illustrates, the decision to remove boys from school was almost always aresult of economic pressures: “Nine children, five girls and four boys, were consulted inthe Northeast. All of the boys said that they would like to attend school, but their parentswould not send them because they could not afford the fees demanded” (Nigeria 1997).The same report indicates that girls were excluded from education for both social andeconomic reasons. Similarly, in rural Benin, parents said, “Why should we send ourdaughters to school? Once they marry they go to their husband, they no longer belong tous” (Benin 1994).

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Child labor is another reason for children leaving school. For poor families, the need toprovide additional income takes precedence: “It is clear from the children’s statementsthat the main cause of school dropout was the need to be involved in remunerativeactivities. For example, one 14-year-old boy living in a rural area dropped out of schoolto work in a salt packing company. Even though he was a good student and he likedschool a lot, he stated that he had to leave school due to financial difficulties and the needto contribute to his family’s subsistence” (El Salvador 1997).

Children not only work, but are often forced into the most risky forms of employment.Child prostitution was reported in many countries. In Panama, “Girls who are twelve orthirteen years old are already women. Drug dealers give them money, they see that theyhave developed breasts . . . They offer them money, invite them to lunch and buy themnew shoes. . . . Fifteen- and sixteen-year-old girls lure the younger ones who sometimesoffer themselves to older men” (Panama 1998). The Panama report summarized thecareer prospects of children in this community: “Young girls end up as mistresses ofdrug dealers, or as prostitutes. Boys run drugs” (Panama 1998).

Similarly in Benin, “The children are basically on their own, without any education andnot even proper respect for the elderly: they’re like street children. They can’t eatregularly, health care is out of the question, and they rarely have real clothes. The girlshave no choice but to prostitute themselves, starting at 14, even at 12. They do it for 50francs, or just for dinner” (Benin 1994).

In rural areas of India, researchers note several examples of bonded child labor in thedrought-prone areas of western Orissa. The PPA tells about a 16-year-old boy in bondedlabor. “Pachawak dropped out of class 3 when one day his teacher caned him severely.Since then he has been working as child labor with a number of rich households.Pachawak’s father owns 1.5 acres of land and works as a laborer. His younger brother of11-years-old also became a bonded laborer when the family had to take a loan for themarriage of the eldest son. The system is closely linked to credit, as many families takeloans from landlords, who in lieu of that obligation keep the children as ‘kuthia.’Pachawak worked as a cattle grazer from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and got paid two to four sacksof paddy a year, two meals a day, and one lungi [wrap-around clothing]” (India 1998a).

As in other countries, in Central Asia and East Europe the stress of poverty also leads tochildren begging on the streets rather than studying in schools. In Georgia, researchersreported that increasing numbers of children have stopped their education. Many workinformally with parents, and many work as traders, loaders, and assistants, some doheavy manual work (Georgia 1997). In Georgia, childhood illnesses and injuries havedramatically increased. A doctor from a clinic reported a four fold increase in childhoodasthma as parents can no longer afford to move to drier climates for sick children. Aschildren increasingly take on adult tasks rates of injuries have gone up. “Now thatchildren take over adult tasks such as chopping wood, gathering fuel, and cooking ondangerous kerosene heaters, they frequently injure and burn themselves” (Georgia 1997).

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Finally, the PPA in Brazil (Brazil 1995) has shown that many street children do havefamilies and are not orphans. Extreme poverty, the father’s absence, and mother’sstruggling alone to make ends meet push children onto the street to earn incomes.Children may work as vendors, car wash guards, shoe shine boys, and grocery carriers.Only a minority engage in criminal acts. However, they are subject to abuse, harassment,and pressures to join gangs as a way of creating a family in the isolation of the streets.The Brazil report included the following depiction of the life of a destitute child. “He isoften the victim of robbery and physical abuse by both peers and adults. He may join agang as a way of creating a new “family” in his state of isolation. He may be harassed,bullied, or lured into criminal acts by gangs of youths and criminals. Surrounded by thedrug subculture, he may begin to abuse drugs. Many street children develop extremelylow self-esteem, apparently in response to the disparagement and abuse they regularlyface in the course of making a living” (Brazil 1995). In South Africa, children’s gangswere reported to revolve around sniffing glue, drinking alcohol, and taking drugs. Yetthese activities, it was stated, “enable the child to become part of a supportive group”(South Africa 1998).

Children are in many ways the least equipped to cope with poverty: “The constantemotional stress of being poor and of the struggle for survival is revealed in many of thestudies. This is most extreme in the case of street children. Here, analysis of self-portraits drawn by some of the children indicates stress, anxiety, emotional regressionand the lack of a real connectedness with the world” (South Africa 1998).

State institutions in South Africa have been ill-equipped for coping with the problems ofpoor children. Children often must beg, wash cars, and make a living in other ways thatare at odds with city by-laws. In addition, street children are excluded from the justicesystem and have few rights. The South Africa PPA notes that poor children are “treatedas youth offenders in terms of the Criminal Procedures Act, instead of being identified asneglected children and treated in terms of the Child Care Act. Children claim to havebeen assaulted by the police, used as informants, and forced to pay bribes” (South Africa1998).

The PoorThe authorities don’t seem to see poor people. Everything about the pooris despised, and above all, poverty is despised. —Brazil 1995

If you are hungry, you will always be hungry, if you are poor, you willalways be poor. —Vietnam 1999a

A poor man looks weak and has a big family; daughters from suchfamilies are prone to early marriages and pregnancies and usually leavetheir children with the old poor grandparents. —Busia, Kenya 1996

While social exclusion and poverty are distinct concepts, they are deeply interconnected.Poor people remain poor because they are excluded from access to the resources,opportunities, information, and connections the less poor have. For poor people in

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developing countries, this translates into inter-generational poverty. In addition, povertyis socially stigmatized, making it even harder for poor people to gain access to thenetworks and resources they need for survival. This vicious cycle is difficult to break.

Being disconnected from powerful institutions limits the information that the poor haveabout entitlements, scholarships for children, and their own earnings. In Armenia, incash-starved villages, some mothers who gave birth at home did not receive child benefitsbecause they could not pay the nominal fee (S5.0) required for the birth certificate. InMacedonia, despite poverty, women could not access scholarships or credits for theirchildren because of lack of information and lack of trust in the outcome even if theybothered to do so, since “only those who have the connections in the services” will getthem (Macedonia 1998).

Poverty carries with it a painful and humiliating stigma and invariably leads to exclusion.After the complicated birth of her last child, one respondent spent some time in hospital.“Her husband was out of work at the time. When she was discharged from hospital, sheowed more 20 lats, which was all the savings the family had. The hospital told them that,by law, they were entitled to be refunded this money from the municipality, and theywere given a receipt. A few days later, she went to the municipality office to get hermoney, but the employee on duty threw her receipt at her, refusing to handle it, [saying,]‘You have paid it yourself.’ No explanation was given, and no refund was made” (Latvia1998).

Because norms and networks provide people with self-respect and standing within thecommunity and provide access to local resources and safety nets, being cut off fromsocial networks and unable to comply with social norms is extremely painful andhumiliating for poor people. People often prefer to go further into debt than to beexcluded from important community activities: “Ceremonies traditionally also entailedimportant obligations for guests, who were obliged to come with gifts or money. PoorMoldovans say they are now forced to choose between refusing such invitations becausethey lack appropriate clothing and money for gifts, and borrowing money so they canmeet their obligations. [A man] from Ungheni had to decline several wedding invitationslast fall, something he says he had never done in his life. But refusing to attend thewedding of his sister's daughter would have been dishonorable. He therefore borrowed35 lei for the wedding gift” (Moldova 1997).

Similarly in Benin, "There was the case of a man who let his father die to save money forthe funeral. He could have spent the money to take his father to the doctor, but then hewould not have had enough money for a good funeral, and that would never do. He wastoo afraid that people could come one day to him and say, 'When your father died, whatwere you able to do?'" (Benin 1994).

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The ElderlyIf I laid down and died, it wouldn’t matter, because nobody needs me. Thisfeeling of my own powerlessness, of being unnecessary, of beingunprotected is for me the worst of all. —An elderly woman, Ukraine 1996

Tell them, ask them to take me. I can't live this way. In an old people'shome, no one will blame me for being old. I don't want to accept helpfrom others. —An old woman, Armenia 1995

The treatment of old people is culture specific. In most of Asia, Africa, and LatinAmerica, the elderly are treated with deference and respect, while in other cultures,particularly in Eastern Europe, where the state assumed responsibility for the welfare ofthe elderly, many elderly have fallen into excluded groups as people fight to survive.With the collapse of social safety nets in the former Soviet Union countries over the lastdecade, old people have become extremely vulnerable. According to a respondent inAjara, “In ten years, there won't be one pensioner still alive” (Georgia 1997). Thevulnerability of old people is compounded by the rapidity of the social collapse. Whereold people could once expect security in retirement, now they see their situation ashopeless: “I worked my whole life. For 42 years I was officially employed. My husbandand I never had to deny ourselves anything. We had really exceptional savings. I was atpeace. I thought, even if I don't have children, in my old age, I’ll be well enoughprovided for that even if I get sick or something happens, I'll have the money to hire acaregiver or a nurse to look after me. I’ll have money for good food, medical care, formy funeral, and for other things. And now I'm a beggar. I don't have anything” (Ukraine1996).

Isolation, loss of status, and powerlessness was reflected in many experiences reported bythe elderly. In Armenia, an elderly woman recounted:

My husband died a long time ago; we didn't have any children. In Baku I workedfor 40 years as a railroad guard. My sister was killed in Sumgeut [an industrialtown in Azerbaijan and the site of anti-Armenian violence in February-March1988]. Her children went to Russia, but I don’t know exactly where. We came toYerevan, and from there a bus brought us here. [After privatization], I gave myland to my neighbor. We agreed that he would work it and give me two sacks(100 kg) of wheat flour. Autumn came and I went to him, but he kept delaying. Iwent ten days without bread. Probably my neighbors gave him a hint, for hefinally took pity on me and sent me two sacks of barley flour. It was impossibleto eat it, but what could I do? I don’t want to live like this. I go into the street,and children yell, “There goes the beggar!” The children evidently pick this upfrom the adults. I have one very kind neighbor, Ashot. He helps me witheverything. He planted my garden, gathered the harvest and gave it to me. But hewants to emigrate. How will I live without him? I have asked Ashot and thevillage chairman to help me move to an old peoples’ home. They say, “AuntieVioletta, why should you go to such a place?” I help many people — I sewblankets for them, mattresses, they have even come to see me from Vaik. One day

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I got up and there was nothing to eat. It’s unbearable to wait, to hope thatsomeone will bring something . . . I left a note in my house so that no one wouldbe blamed for my death, and I decided to throw myself off the cliff. On the road,I ran into the chairman of the neighboring village. I couldn't help myself; I startedto cry. He calmed me down, for which I am grateful, and convinced me to returnhome. I am not complaining about people. Ashot supports me, but soon even hewill leave. They say there’s an old people's home in Yerevan. Tell them, askthem to take me. I can’t live this way. In an old people’s home, no one willblame me for being old. I don't want to accept help from others. (Armenia 1995)

To cope, elderly pensioners in some East Europe countries cancel their life insurance tosave costs (Latvia 1998). In Moldova, with increasing costs of health care, the elderlypoor, "tend to ignore their own illness, which they interpret as an inevitable part ofgrowing old, or simply of less importance given few resources and the competing needsof younger family members," Moldova, 1997.

In Vietnam one of the main groups identified as poor is the elderly, especially those whowere ill, or who live on their own and have poor children. Lack of savings, a significantindicator of poverty, was found to be particularly acute among the elderly who can notaccess the labor of children and hence are considered poor risks for loans. Leaders of awoman’s union that provided credit said, “We cannot give them loans because if they die,we won’t get the money back” (Vietnam 1999a). The strong desire by poor, elderlyparents not to be burdens on their poor children — who are already deep in their ownstruggles — emerged in many places. “We are nearly dead now; we do not have anydesire for ourselves; we just hope our children will not be poor.” In Ecuador, in the Sierracommunities, the elderly, widows and others left alone were identified as the poorestbecause of their inability to adequately exploit their land resources on their own,(Ecuador 1996a).

With increasing economic stress and breakdown of family solidarity, the elderly areemerging as a new category of excluded poor in countries across Africa and in Asia.Where social networks are stressed, the most vulnerable then resort to begging. InMadagascar, "Begging is primarily adopted by those who don’t fit into the community,namely divorced wives, widows, old people, the disabled and those with no children"(Madagascar 1996).

Ethnic GroupsMost of the drop-outs are found among the indigenous people — if theyever start school. —Vietnam 1999a

They have always excluded us Mayas, they have discriminated against us.They cut down the tree, but forgot to pull down the roots. That tree is nowsprouting. —Guatemala 1997a

Social exclusion on the grounds of ethnicity is a common theme running through thereports. Power relations in heterogeneous societies always favor some groups at the

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expense of others. In India, exclusion on the grounds of ethnicity is perpetuated by therigidities of the caste system: “It is observed by Gandas of Khairmal that, even in publicinstitution like schools, their children take mid-day meals sitting at a distance from otherchildren. One Anganwadi worker had to leave the job because she did not want to cleanthe utensils touched by Ganda boys and did not like to take care of the Ganda children.The practice of untouchability was also reported from other villages” (India 1998a).

Some forms of marginalization are geographical, such as in India where the nativeAdivasi tribal population is pushed to the degraded forests and eroded hill slopes,scrubland, and rocky soil, by settlers. They become sources of agricultural labor forothers, or encroach upon common property resources that are rapidly diminishing (India1998b).

In Uganda, “After the community had finished drawing its village social map, we wantedto know what future aspirations the community had. One participant proposed thatsomething be done about the poor situation of the Batwa. At this point it emerged thatnone of the [Batwa] had had their households included on the village map. Worse, not asingle person from this small ethnic group had turned up for the meeting. A separateeffort was made by the research team to interview some Batwa families. Two womenwere found in the neighborhood. One summed it up for us thus: ‘We only gain value inthe eyes of the Bafumbira when we are working their gardens. In other instances we areinvisible’” (Uganda 1998).

Social exclusion on the grounds of ethnicity is a key to understanding who gets resources.In Vietnam, for example, ethnic considerations have been key in determining access toeducation: “[In the whole district] there are two Chau Ma children going to school. Theydo not want to go the school, for the Kinh children are beating them up . . . Teachers areavailable although most of them only speak Vietnamese. The rate of Kinh children goingto school is much higher than that of the ethnic groups. Most of the dropouts are foundamong the indigenous people, if they ever start school. The reasons for the lowattendance vary but the most common are labor needed at home, long distances, no roads,dangerous passages over water, no adequate book and clothes, not understandingVietnamese, not being made welcome by the Kinh children” (Vietnam 1996).

People with HIV/AIDSA person with AIDS suffers a lot because there will be no communicationwhatsoever because people will get afraid of him and he will end upwithout friends. —South Africa 1998

AIDS knows no boundaries. —Uganda 1998

Myths and stereotypes that surround AIDS have caused sufferers of the disease to be cutoff from social networks, the critical survival asset for the poor. Stereotypes againstHIV/AIDS sufferers are heavily culturally specific. In Eastern Europe, the negativeassociations ascribed to drug-users and homosexuals have excluded sufferers; in Africa,the disease is associated with prostitutes, women, truck drivers, and with poverty.

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A key problem for those with HIV/AIDS is shame, denial and social isolation, and losingaccess to the social networks they need in order to cope with the psychological andmaterial consequences of illness: “A major fear associated with HIV/AIDS is the fear ofsocial isolation that would result for a household and individual if the knowledge ofinfection became public. . . . This causes many to hide the fact of infection, therebyhampering efforts to bring the issue into the open to further public education” (SouthAfrica 1998). Fear also leads to the widespread attitude that “if you just ignore thesymptoms . . . [then] they will go away,” particularly since HIV/AIDS has becomeassociated with death, orphans, and destitution (Uganda 1998). The behavior of healthproviders, the “rudeness and moralistic attitudes” of clinic staff who work withHIV/AIDS patients, discourages the poor from seeking crucial services (South Africa1998).

AIDS has consequences beyond the individual. Whole households may face isolation. InBurkina Faso:

AIDS widows . . . have been chased with their children from their villages. Theyend up in the city, arriving with nothing, knowing almost no one, and looking forwork. They share a common stigma with the older women found at the CenterDelwende de Taughin, in Sector 24. Both have been accused of witchcraft andchased from their villages after an unexplainable death. These new type ofyoung, homeless women are accused of the deaths of their young, seemingly fit,husbands. What makes them different from the older women and much morevulnerable in the city is that they are probably in danger of being infectedthemselves. Moreover, they arrive not alone, but with small children, too youngto help find work and survive. With the increase in AIDS cases over time . . . thenumbers of these women, socially ostracized, will continue to grow as well.(Burkina Faso 1994)

The issue of HIV/AIDS and its severe consequences on households and society werediscussed in most PPA reports from Africa including South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania,Mali, Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso, Zambia, Swaziland, Senegal, Ethiopia, Cameroon.HIV/AIDS was also identified as an issue in Thailand. (Case Study 2 in chapter 3 offersadditional information from the PPAs on HIV/AIDS).

The DisabledDisabled children are not seen as human beings; they are isolated at homeand not sent to school. —Kabale focus group, Uganda 1998

Disability is frequently reported as one of the characteristics of the “very poor.” Issues ofaccess, both to physical and social space, have emerged. A blind woman from Tiraspolreports:

For a poor person everything is terrible — illness, humiliation, shame. We arecripples; we are afraid of everything; we depend on everyone. No one needs us;

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we are like garbage that everyone wants to get rid of. . . . Families on the edge ofindigence or already in debt are often unable to treat [their] chronic or seriousillnesses. Maria . . . recently discovered several lumps in her breast. The familyalready has such a large debt from her husband’s treatment that she has refused toeven consult a doctor, although she realizes she might have cancer. A disabledman in the district of Balti reported similar behavior on the part of his wife: “Shehas a serious liver disease and even though I tell her to go to the doctor, she won't.She is afraid of paying money.” Even when poor people do start treatment, theysometimes find they can't afford to complete it. A respondent reported she hadcome down with pneumonia. She borrowed enough money to buy ten doses ofpenicillin, but only had nine injections, since she could not afford a tenth syringe.(Moldova 1997)

Social exclusion can still continue even when the basic economic concerns of disabledpeople are met:

Before the earthquake, Armenians were unaccustomed and often repulsed to seepeople with any sort of deformity, regarding birth defects and handicaps asshameful. Families often hid handicapped children at home so they would notreduce the marriage chances for the “normal” children. Since the earthquake,considerable aid has gone to the disabled. In Giumri's Austrian Quarter, thedisabled, along with their able-bodied relatives or guardians, have occupied 100specially designed apartments well supplied by electricity and cooking gas. Thedisabled have “patrons” in Europe who send money and clothing, and even payfor holidays. Yet the disabled remain isolated. Lack of special transport confinedthem to a single neighborhood, special school, small church, local polyclinic, andsmall shop. The able-bodied population living in the earthquake zone who lostclose family members and remain ill-housed and needy feel they have sufferedjust as much as the disabled, and consider it unfair that “all the aid” goes to the“handicapped.” As a result, the disabled are prey to name-calling and hostilitywhen they venture from their immediate surroundings into Giumri. (Armenia1995)

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Case Study 9: WidowsWhen my husband died, my in-laws told me to get out. So I came to townand slept on the pavement. —A middle-aged widow, Kenya 1996

Even before the funeral of the deceased husband, some widows aremistreated by the in-laws who take all the property, including the children.—Mbarara focus group, Uganda 1998

We did not start our analysis with the idea of featuring widows as an excluded group.But the data suggest that in many cultures, among the poor, becoming a widow istantamount to “social death.” Widows are seen as harbingers of death and bad luck, andare considered burdensome, useless, and easy prey, and were often identified as thepoorest of the poor. In Swaziland, women said that the hardship of widows was madeworse by a Swazi custom that regards them as bearers of bad luck and imposes uponthem social isolation during a prolonged period of mourning (Swaziland 1997). Thecombination of social prejudices, kinship customs, and lack of accountability on the partof state institutions helps explain why widows face great risk of social exclusion andpoverty. This case study will examine the problems of widowhood by providing answersto two questions: How and why are widows excluded, and how do they cope?

How and Why are Widows Excluded?If the woman has no children at the time of widowhood, she is asked toleave immediately, sometimes blamed for the death, and even labeled awitch. Relations ensure that she leaves with nothing but her clothes.—Tanzania 1997

They do not make an economic contribution to the household

They do not possess any kind of skill. —India 1997b

As an Indian report notes, widows are assumed to be an economic burden on thehousehold: “They are wholly dependent on their family for care and support as they donot have any earnings of their own. Socially, they are often neglected and considered aburden on the family. The general perception is that they do not make any significanteconomic contribution to the family and that they do not possess any kind of skill” (India1997b).

Despite this perception, widows frequently do work, but their range of possible activitiesis often severely limited by unpaid childcare responsibilities. The lack of economicproductivity, in other words, may have more to do with the constraints placed on widowsthan with the women themselves. A widow in Guatemala observed, “The widows don’thave anyone to help them, and they don’t have even a small piece of land — not even tohave a house, never mind to grow crops” (Guatemala 1994a). Further, many culturaltraditions and legal systems deny widows access to the resources once controlled by the

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household. She often cannot fall back on her original social networks for support,because she was expected to sever those ties upon marriage.

For many women, finding socially acceptable remunerated work is challenging enoughwithout the stigma, childcare responsibilities, and grief of widowhood. Yet in theabsence of assets, opportunities, and social support, widows must work endlessly tosurvive. One widowed mother of six who weaves textiles, collects wood to sell, andworks occasionally as a laundress, said, “We are poor because our work does not permitus to eat. What we earn from our work is sufficient for one or two days and then we haveto look for work for the next days. We have pain every day. We never rest, ever”(Guatemala 1994a).

They do not possess assets of their own

After the death of my husband, his brother married my husband’s secondwife and took all documents related to the house that my husband owned.Now I’m neither owner nor renter, he rents four of the six rooms and hekeeps the rent. My brother-in-law has rented some of my children. I workas a maid and sell sand that is used for washing dishes. I collect this sandaround the neighborhood. I eat what I can find and it is not everyday thatI eat. —A widow in a neighborhood of Bamako, Mali 1993

In many traditional societies widows are often expropriated of the family assets whentheir husbands die. This means that they experience a drastic fall in income at a timewhen they can least afford it. The economic hardship suffered by widows is exacerbatedby the discrimination against widows in credit markets, which makes it harder for them toreacquire assets. This theme was highlighted in women’s discussion groups:

In the case of widows, male relatives of the husband (generally his brothers) willclaim rights on household property unless the male children are old enough toinherit, taking away means of production and transport, and even their house. Insome areas of Africa, widows are supposed to stay inside their house for a wholeyear, thus being practically forced to abandon whatever income-generatingactivity they had and to depend on charity. The custom whereby brothers-in-law“inherit” widows along with property represents one of the best outcomes, as itaffords women the possibility to maintain the usufruct rights over their householdproperty and provides them the protection and status deriving from a husband.(Benin 1994)

And in Nigeria, “it was pointed out that these women are suspect when it comes toborrowing money for business ventures or self improvement. They also suffer threats totheir privacy and property. In particular, widows and barren women lose their husband'sproperty to relations of the husband in accordance with traditional family rules” (Nigeria1995).

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They are expected to fulfill social responsibilities

Bereavement and funerals can cause poverty. —Kenya 1997

Despite the economic loss resulting from their husband’s death, widows are oftenexpected to participate in expensive community undertakings, the most obvious of whichis paying for the husband’s funeral. Funeral costs can be exceptionally high, especiallyas a percentage of a poor person's income. In some countries, arrangements exist for anextended family network to contribute to fees. If no such network exists, however, thewidow will sometimes have to pay for the appropriate expenses herself: “Bereavementand funerals can cause poverty. In Kisumu, the widow(s) and children are often leftbankrupt. This marks the beginning of poverty for the bereaved family members” (Kenya1997).

In South Asia, social obligations include finding a dowry for their daughter’s marriage:

Rehala lives in Mahya Bagra. She is 35 years old. Rehala’s husband died tenyears ago while leaving her three children to bring up alone. Her son married andwent away having squandered all her savings. She works as a maidservant. Bothher daughters have married, the eldest to a rickshaw puller and the second to a daylaborer. When they married, Rehala said she could not give dowry. Every daythe men are demanding it. They want gold, furniture, utensils and mattresses.She thought her son would help out but he is only concerned for himself. Shealready has an outstanding loan of Tk 30,000 and feels she will never be able torepay the loan and give the dowry demanded by her two sons-in-law. (India1998c)

They are poorly provided for by state or community safety nets

If assistance . . . comes at all, no one ever knows what happens to it.—Moldova 1997.

There are very few assistance programs that directly assist widows. Often widows haveto find assistance by qualifying for a second category of assistance, such as pensions orgovernment transfers to the poor. Furthermore, widows, like other poor and excludedgroups, are poorly positioned to gain access to government policies; powerlessness in theface of political indifference and corruption contributes to their economic hardship:

If assistance for people from different social groups comes at all, no one everknows what happens to it — there is anarchy in our village, and I wouldn’t like totalk about this. Village authorities often act in defiance of the law. The mayordoes not even observe his daily schedule. Villagers need these meetings to havethe opportunity to submit their applications or proposals. (Collective farmworker, Cahul district, Moldova 1997)

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How Do Widows Cope?They seek informal employment

For a woman it is a problem to start life afresh. —Tanzania 1997

As noted above, widows work to help mitigate their situation. They are often barredfrom formal employment due to gender discrimination, and widows are forced to findwork in the informal sector (MacEwen Scott 1995). A group of women in rural Tanzaniareported, “For a woman it is a problem to start life afresh. . . . Sometimes women engagein businesses like selling food in the open markets, do piecework, or prostitution. Manylacking education do not know their legal rights and end up moving with drivers of long-haul trucks along the Dar-Malawi or Rwanda roads. They come back when they arepregnant” (Tanzania 1997).

In Macedonia (1998), a widow explains that she begs. “ Everyday she goes to buildingsor stands in crossings and begs with her three year old child. She earns around 150 dinarsa day. She goes to beg by bus, but she does not pay her fare because the drivers alreadyknow her, and they do not ask for money . . .” Her children do not go to school becauseshe doesn’t have enough money.

The struggle to live touches widows in many countries. “Mai is a 37-year-old widowwhose husband died when she was three months pregnant. Unable to work whilepregnant, and struggling to raise two other young children, she quickly fell into debt andhad to mortgage their land to buy food. Mai currently works as a domestic servant, butshe is still 2 million VND in debt. She currently goes to work from 6:30 A.M. to 5 P.M.and lists her main difficulties as having the money to buy back her land and thenloneliness. Her dream now is to save enough capital to raise pigs and ducks, while herdaughters dream is freedom of debt for her mother” (Vietnam 1999).

They withdraw their children from school

We simply have to survive. —Moldova 1997

One way in which widows survive is to make the difficult choice of taking their childrenfrom school. In this event, girls are more likely than boys to be withdrawn so that theycan provide income through child labor or do housework while the mother works: "Oneyoung mother of four keeps her three school age children out of school so they can helpscavenge cardboard. She explained, ‘We simply have to survive. If we had nothing toburn, we would die. My children can't go to school because without them, I wouldn’t beable to gather enough cardboard every day’” (Moldova 1997).

They access state or community entitlements, where they exist

Without pensions . . . many households and communities would collapse.—South Africa 1998

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If widows are elderly, pensions can be a vital source of income, not only for the widow,but also, through multiplier effects, for the community in which she lives. A SouthAfrican report noted:

Without pensions, it was apparent that many households and communities wouldcollapse. Pensions are shared by households and communities and are used toinvest in the development of household assets, and their utilization. Moreover,pensions are very frequently a primary source of support for grandchildren, withthe pensioner [providing childcare] in the absence of the child’s parents. Pensionsalso help to make old people secure in the family (or enable them to leavehouseholds if they so choose). As such, they give the elderly some measure ofcontrol over their own lives. (South Africa 1998)

In a few cases, there are even direct entitlements for widows: “The collective welfarefund is for taking care of the ‘five-guarantee’ households, i.e. the aged, the infirm, oldwidows and widowers, and orphans with five types of help (food, clothing, medical care,housing, and burial expenses), and on allowance for especially poor households, etc.”(China 1997).

Yet the state, in general, does not directly target social safety nets to widows. This leaveswidows with the option of accessing community and household level entitlements, as thefollowing Pakistani example demonstrates:

Widows and the elderly have a respected place in Pakistani society and those whoare part of a social network are afforded some degree of support and care. Inreturn, they provide help with childcare, domestic tasks and income generatingactivities. Nevertheless, support is usually extended by people who arethemselves deprived, with very little or nothing to spare. Thus current targetingof social safety nets at widows and orphans is appropriate, recognizing as it doesdifferentiated levels of well-being within households. However, [widows andorphans] constitute the primary beneficiary group for virtually all social safety netprograms, which leaves large number of the poorest uncatered for. . . . Olderwomen have more status and decision-making power than their daughters anddaughters-in-law and this is sometimes a source of intra-household friction.However, older women reported that the intensification of work weighsparticularly heavily on them and that they are no longer strong enough to do thework required of them. Despite widows being a locus of most social safety netprograms, on the whole the problems of the elderly have not been given highpriority by the social sectors and widows are not necessarily among the elderly.(Pakistan 1993)

They return to their parents’ home

Even her father hesitates in welcoming her because she cannot inheritanything from the family. —Tanzania 1997

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The extent to which a widow can expect her family to provide support after herhusband’s death depends on the culture. In Europe and Central Asia this was mentionedmuch less than in other parts of the developing world. In Africa, where the familynetworks otherwise serve as social safety nets, widows are not included in their scope. InKenya, for example, widows reported that since they would not be welcome in theirfather’s homes, they often just went to the nearest town, eking a living, often moving inand out of prostitution (Kenya 1996). In Tanzania women said, “It is tragic for women,because when she comes back with nothing, even her father hesitates in welcoming herbecause she cannot inherit anything from the family. A divorced or separated family willbe buried at the church compound, not on her father’s farm. In some areas they bury herat the boundary of the farm, as she has no place in the farm. The farm is for her son”(Tanzania 1997).

They migrate

I have been everywhere, carrying these children with my teeth. —SouthAfrica 1998

Given the relative unavailability of socially acceptable work for widows living in ruralareas, many widows become migrants, heading for urban zones. This makes thempotentially more vulnerable; while family networks may extend into urban areas, oftenthey do not. One elderly widow said, “Oh, in those years [after being evicted from afarm] I was tossed around, getting knocks here and there. I have been everywhere,carrying these children with my teeth. I moved towards the coast to a place near PortAlfred. I sought some way of supporting myself by working for some sort of whites inthe area, spending a year here, two or so there, and another one elsewhere. I then cameback to Manly Flats to work on a chicory form, but then had to join my daughters inGrahamstown because the children with me found the farm work exhausting” (SouthAfrica 1998).

They become sex workers

After the death of her husband, she tried to make money in different ways,but prostitution was the most cost-effective. —Widow with two children,Macedonia 1998

In order to generate an income, some widows find work as sex workers. Given the riskof disease and the social stigma attached to the work, this is generally seen as a last resortcoping strategy for widows and for poor women. In Cameroon “two main reasons weregiven for the high rate of prostitution: (a) high unemployment, and (b) retrenchments andmassive salary cuts. . . . Commercial sex workers interviewed in Yaounde and Doualaconfirmed this. In East Province, teenage girls and women out of general employmentwould say in despair, ‘We have food to sell, but no one will buy [it]. Those that try tobuy, pay cheaply for it [so] that it is no longer worth the effort to farm. In the face of thisdouble bind, what else is there left for a woman to sell?’” (Cameroon 1995).

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Policy SupportThese findings suggest four central policies to improve the lives and livelihoods ofwidows and their families:

• Enforced property rights• Employment opportunities• Improved safety nets• Information

Enforcing property rights challenges the economic basis for the exclusion of widows.If a widow owns resources, others are more likely to find reasons to support them andwork with them. Such social and economic assets also provide a better guarantee againstfuture risks.

Widows find themselves discriminated against in the employment market, and are forcedinto the informal sector, which pays less and is more insecure. In Bangladesh, one of themost important priorities for all women was the opportunity to work

Employment opportunities are essential. This means removing discrimination againstwidows and women more generally in the formal market, and especially improvingconditions in the informal sector into which most poor women are thrown. Assistancewith self-employment opportunities would be especially valuable, as it would ease theircash flow, give them enhanced social status, provide them with psychological security,help them to send their children to school, and enable them access healthcare. Manywomen expressed the view that they are not looking for charity, but looking foremployment opportunities. This way they will not have to ask or beg for any outsideassistance. (Bangladesh 1996)

State- and community-funded safety nets can provide widows with a modicum ofsecurity. Baseline security is necessary if widow-headed households are to take the risksnecessary for long-term economic improvements. These safety nets should work toensure that widows have access to the opportunities and freedom necessary to get out ofpoverty and to redefine their role in society.

Given the persistence of social norms, there need to be interventions at the communitylevel that address some of the social and economic pressures widows face. The need fordirect assistance emerges strongly in these reports. Community-based programs thatbring widows together in economic and social solidarity can transform their lives.

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ConclusionsPoor women and men in many countries feel more socially excluded and less protectedthan they have in the past. This disintegration of social order is compounded by the factthat for many the old coping mechanisms based on traditional networks are fastdisappearing. Poor people 3speak of a loss of community, which could partially substitutefor the lack of assistance from distant state regimes the poor feel powerless to change.Community solidarity has indeed increased in some places as a form of self-protection,but it is unable to confront — much less change — corrupted state institutions thatbecome aligned with criminality and justice and police protection that can be bought andsold. In this type of environment, poor people see few benefits to increased investment inhuman capital. As children in Mexico (1995) Latvia ( 1998) and Vietnam (1999) said,moving out of poverty is related to neither schooling nor hard work.

For many vulnerable groups, such as the elderly, those with HIV/AIDS, and in manycontexts women, changes over the last decade have eroded important social safetynetworks and practices. This results in greater exclusion, as the poor struggle to survive.Clearly the way the state is organized often exacerbates existing social tensions andcleavages, leading to greater inequality between the rich and the poor. (See Table 4).

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Growth, Inequality, and Poverty

Table 4. Indicators of relative inequality and absolute povertyCountry 1995-96 GNP per capita growth

(avg annual %)Gini

IndexPopulation below $1 a day

(%)

Armenia 7.4 39.4Azerbaijan -1.3Bangladesh 3.8Benin 3.2Bolivia 2.6 42.0Brazil 6.7 59.6 23.6Burkina Faso 3.3 39.0Cambodia 3.9Cameroon 4.5 49.0China 8.9 37.8 22.2Costa Rica -2.0 46.1 18.9Ecuador 1.2 43.0 30.4El Salvador 0.0 48.4Ethiopia 7.2 44.2 46.0Gabon -1.2 63.2GeorgiaGhana 2.3 33.9Guatemala 8.6 59.1 53.3Guinea-Bissau

3.7

India 5.1 32.0 47.0Indonesia 5.8 31.7 7.7Jamaica -1.6 37.9 4.3Kenya 3.1 54.4 50.2KyrgyzRepublic

4.1 35.3 18.9

Latvia 3.5 27.0Macedonia 0.6Madagascar 0.5 43.4 72.3Mali 1.2 54.0Mexico 4.7 50.3 14.9Moldova -9.7 34.4 6.8Nicaragua 4.2 50.3 43.8Niger -0.1 36.1 31.1Nigeria 1.9 37.5 61.5

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Pakistan 0.3 31.2 11.6Panama 4.1 56.5 25.6Philippines 4.5 45.0 26.9Rwanda 7.8 28.9 45.7Senegal 3.2 54.1 54.0South Africa 1.0 62.3 23.7Tanzania 1.7 38.1Thailand 4.4 51.5 3.9Togo 4.3Tunisia -0.4 40.2Uganda 6.2 40.8 69.3Ukraine -8.5 25.7Venezuela -3.7 53.8 11.8Vietnam 7.3 35.7Yemen -7.8Zambia 3.4 52.4 84.6

This table illustrates growth, inequality, and poverty across countries. Growth is measured by averageannual 1995-96 growth of GNP per capita, inequality is measured by the Gini index, and poverty indicatedby the proportion of people living below $1 a day.

Sources: World Development Indicators 1998, 1999; Deininger-Squire Inequality Database 1999.Note: The Gini Index and Population below $1 a day represent currently available data, not necessarily of the same year, and hencemay not be comparable across countries.

215

Figure 10. Median Intentional Homicide Rates by Region, 1970-94

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

1970-74 1975-79 1980-84 1985-89 1990-94

Int.

Hom

. per

100

,000

pop

ulat

ion

Latin America & Caribbean Sub-Saharan Africa Europe & Central AsiaAsia Middle East & North Africa

This figure illustrates the trends in crime, measured by intentional homicides per 100,000, across regions.Latin America and the Caribbean is a stark illustration of high crime levels increasing over time; between1970 and 1989, this region, with its crime rates among the highest in the world, became even more violentin 1990-94. Sub-Saharan Africa exhibits a decreasing trend from 1975-89, then a sharp subsequentincrease. Europe and Central Asia had relatively low crime rates in the early 1970s, started to show adecrease through the mid-1980s, then exhibited a sharp rise in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Asia and theMiddle East and North Africa had small changes in crime levels, relative to other regions, through the1970s and 1980s, and show a decreasing trend in the 1990s.

Source: Fajnzylber, Lederman and Loayza, 1998.